The Coca-Cola company announces new global vision to help create a world without waste

The Coca-Cola Company announced today that it is fundamentally reshaping its approach to packaging, with a global goal to help collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of its packaging by 2030.

This goal is the centerpiece of the Company’s new packaging vision for a World Without Waste, which the Coca-Cola system intends to back with a multi-year investment that includes ongoing work to make packaging 100% recyclable. This begins with the understanding that food and beverage containers are an important part of people’s modern lives but that there is much more to be done to reduce packaging waste globally.

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“The world has a packaging problem – and, like all companies, we have a responsibility to help solve it,” said James Quincey, President and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. “Through our World Without Waste vision, we are investing in our planet and our packaging to help make this problem a thing of the past.”

Workers separate PET plastics for recycling at the Cannibal Recycling facility outside of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Cannibal Recycling collects an average of 80 tons of PET every month.

The Company and its bottling partners are pursuing several key goals:

• Investing in the planet: By 2030, for every bottle or can the Coca-Cola system sells globally, we aim to help take one back so it has more than one life. The Company is investing its marketing dollars and skills behind this 100% collection goal to help people understand what, how and where to
recycle. We will support collection of packaging across the industry, including bottles and cans from other companies. The Coca-Cola system will work with local communities, industry partners, our
customers, and consumers to help address issues like packaging litter and marine debris.

• Investing in packaging: To achieve its collection goal, The Coca-Cola Company is continuing to work toward making all of its packaging 100% recyclable globally. The Company is building better bottles, whether through more recycled content, by developing plant-based resins, or by reducing the amount of plastic in each container. By 2030, the Coca-Cola system also aims to make bottles with an average of 50% recycled content. The goal is to set a new global standard for beverage packaging. Currently, the majority of the Company’s packaging is recyclable.

World Without Waste is the next step in the Company’s ongoing sustainability efforts, building off success in replenishing an estimated 100% of the water it uses in its final beverages. The Company achieved and exceeded its water replenishment goal in 2015, five years ahead of expectations. These efforts are part of the Company’s larger strategy to grow with conscience, by becoming a total beverage company that grows the right way.

“Bottles and cans shouldn’t harm our planet, and a litter-free world is possible,” Quincey said. “Companies like ours must be leaders. Consumers around the world care about our planet, and they want and expect companies to take action. That’s exactly what we’re going to do, and we invite others to join us on this critical journey.”

The Coca-Cola Company will work to achieve these goals with the help of several global partners: the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, The Ocean Conservancy/Trash Free Seas Alliance and World Wildlife Fund (The Cascading Materials Vision and Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance). Coca-Cola will also launch efforts with new partners at the regional and local level and
plans to work with its key customers to help motivate consumers to recycle more packaging.

“We would like to encourage everyone to recycle as part of a circular economy, where plastic, glass,
and aluminum are reused or repurposed as many times as possible, rather than being used once and then thrown away. We look forward to working with the industry, local communities, NGOs, government organizations, and even our critics to highlight this critical issue. When we all come together to help solve this problem, collectively we will make a bigger difference than if we simply act alone,” said Winn Everhart, President & General Manager of Coca-Cola Philippines.

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In 2017, employees from Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling Co. joined with other volunteers in St. Louis to collect and sort 14,480 pounds of debris; 63 percent was diverted for recycling. Coca-Cola then partnered with manufacturer Phoenix Technologies to convert plastic bottles into recycled PET plastic for use in new bottles.

The Coca-Cola System in the Philippines has already started on the journey towards achieving this goal through their active participation with the Philippine Alliance for Recycling and Materials Sustainability (PARMS) – a multi-stakeholder coalition supported by the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) and composed of the top corporations in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. Recently, Coca-Cola and other members of PARMS announced their commitment to work with government and non-government organizations in developing a sustainable solid waste management program in the country, starting with its plan to build a state of the art materials recovery and reprocessing facility.

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